Revenge is Sweet
To this day it does not cease to amaze me just how abusive people on the 'net
can be to one another. Being a troll is far more cowardly than road rage,
because the violator can hide behind the anonymity inherent in most internet
communications. Surely there are people who're savvy enough to find a person
given an IP address, but I am certainly not one of them.
Quite some time ago I was invited to join a very exclusive members-only
Yahoo Group (basically a fancy-schmantzy BBS). The subject of the group's
discussion is The Great American Songbook and the
singers that made the tunes famous. The reason this group is oh-so-exclusive is
that a percentage of their membership are music producers, composers, and
performers. It was a thrill to actually "converse" with people whose names I'd
read many times on record jackets. Now, this genre is not the
multi-million-dollar world of the Billboard Top 100, but
without the exclusivity of the group fans would be able to harass these creative
types. That wouldn't be good.
I was astounded by the abusive trolls (more like vindictive high school
girls) who made up a small percentage of the group's members. More
astounding was the fact that the group's moderator was a drama queen who
thrived on watching the exasperated responses of the more mature members to the
rudeness.
Because I was new, some of these individuals sank their teeth into me, but
good. I managed to merely ignore the comments (and thoroughly enjoy my
interaction with those members I admired and respected).
It took years for some of these people to open up to me. But when they did, I
began receiving invitations to delightful parties, concerts, luncheons and
dinners. Despite my level of acceptance by the group's senior members, there
were those members who never failed to take complete advantage of a chance to
verbally skewer me.
One of the worst violators remained relatively anonymous. His posts revealed
that he was a self-proclaimed "arts writer" who resided in New York City. It was
a post by another member that, purely by accident, revealed a favorite weekend
hang-out of this sour-assed individual.
I harbored enough animosity with regard to this guy's on-line behavior that I
was sore tempted to just show up at the cabaret where he, and a few of the
group's other members, would go to sing songs and drink. Upon showing up, I
thought, I'd just punch him in the nose. However, getting arrested for assault
was not something that appealed to me. So instead I made a post announcing that
I was going to show up on a Sunday afternoon. This was intended to put a modicum
of fear into this idiot.
So brazen was this troll that he actually responded to my post. His response
"dared" me to show up. So I said I would — and told him when I got there I was
going to "smack" him.
My friends from the group related the tale of the look of sheer horror on
this guy's face when I placed a call to the cabaret and asked to speak to him.
He told the waiter to tell me he wasn't there. I am certain that this guy
frequently looked at the door, trying to spot a short, kinda fat guy with a pony
tail.
The group's moderator (remember, a piece of work himself) sided with this abrasive moron, and kicked me out
of the group, the reason being I threatened a member with physical abuse.
No great loss; I'm still in touch via email with the group members I hold near
and dear.
UPDATE: The esteemed TenMinJoe, (unlike the other, anonymous downvoters) told me in a /msg "this is not cool..." I told him that the guy I wanted to assault (but later decided merely to frighten) had included insults against my mother in his quiver of verbal arrows. After a conversation, Joe and I agreed to disagree about making the threat of violence in retaliation for a verbal assault.
It is my sincere hope that others who disagree with using threats of violence were not hesitant to /msg me because they were afraid I'd "stalk" them and punch them...